Patients with extensive tattoos put themselves at risk of missing skin cancers and failure to receive suitable skin grafts, UK dermatologists report.

In a letter to the editor of the Australasian Journal of Dermatology, clinicians from Nottingham’s NHS Treatment Centre describe three patients whose tattoos landed them in serious trouble.

In all three cases, the patients felt they had not been adequately warned of the health consequences of getting their tattoos.

Finding ‘sinister changes’ underneath tattoo pigment was challenging for dermatologists the authors said.